Lacrymosa
by ThEnAmEsGiGi
Summary: Time is one of those mysteries that can never be solved. It is neither a substance…nor a pressure.It could not be controlled.Or killed.And it could not force anything on you physically. Yet time is a force to reckon with should you meddle with it.
1. Chapter 1

Time is one of those mysteries that can never be solved. It is neither a substance…nor a pressure

It could not be controlled.

Or killed

And it could not force anything on you physically

Yet time is a force to reckon with should you meddle with it.

It is probably one of the most deadliest things in our unviverse.

For everything is only just a matter of time.

Hermione knew all yet she would never understand just how important that would become until it was already to late, for when news of Harry's death reached her and Ron's ears she knew what must be done.

For Dumbledore had already given her precise instructions in case something like this was to happen.

So as the sight of a limp and dead Harry, cradled in a sobbing zombie like Hagrid who looked almost as dead as the boy in his arms, reached her eyes from when they had appeared from the forest; everything else seemed to melt away and the message Dumbledore had left for her before he died flouted its way back into her mind. As clear as if he was writing it in her head as everything else became a blur.

__

Dear Miss Hermione Jean Granger,

A curse soared through the air that was suddenly alight with cackling electricity as spells were thrown all around her, as her last companion went to join the others in battle; consumed with the need for vengeance for their best friend, for his brothers. But she would not be able to join him…

__

I leave you this message hidden in the runes of this children's book in case you should ever need to do what I shall instruct…

A tear slipped out of Hermione's eyes leaving a track through the dirt on her face, but she couldn't feel it.

__

For only you can do this Miss Granger. You are what I like to call plan B should something go wrong… Should Plan A fail.

Hermione closed her eyes for a brief moment as twin tears slipped out of her anguished brown eyes and the weight of what has happen and what is to come truly sunk in… plan A has _failed_.

__

I am sorry to have to ask this of you and I would rather not, but should Harry die and Voldemort still lives still then I need you to do this Miss Granger… for this the only way to truly end it all,

Harry was dead. Voldemort was alive, she needed- no had to, end this once and for all. If only for Harry's honour, for everyone's sake…

She took a deep breath as the air around her seemed to tighten, making it hard for her to breathe. Dimly she noted the spell that just whizzed a half a breathe past her ear; she could still hear its ring…

__

You must quickly and discreetly as possible go to the headmistress office and once safely inside go to the cabinet behind the headmasters desk.

She opened her eyes once more with determination brewing from their depths, from her soul as she swiftly dodged curses all around her as she ran back to the castle. She had to end this!

__

Search inside for a small box that has the deathly hallows symbol on it. Inside you will find a scope with the deathly hallows sympol on the end of it. This scope is part of an important process you need to do in order for this to work. You must keep it safely with you.

Faces of her peers, of her friends and teachers all flew past her as she ran past their fighting figures. Fighting for a lost cause. Fighting for revenge.

She wanted to join…

__

From there, go to the third floor and travel into the depts where you once found the sorcerers stone back in your first year; do not fear for all the obstacles that were once there have been removed.

A curse hit her running form from behind and with a cry of anguish Hermione hit the floor, blood spurting from her legs and arms. Quickly she rolled onto her back and aimed her wand at her unidentifiable attacker; with a _Stupefy!_ her attacker went down and Hermione was once again on the run dodging curses that whizzed all around her.

__

Be sure Ms. Granger that you

are not followed! _It is imperative that no one else finds your location. Should you come upon someone than I must ask you to fight with every means necessary to get away and make sure they do not come after you! I suggest warding yourself in once you are there. No one can come upon the third floor besides yourself._

It had amazed her at the time when she had first read the letter, that Dumbledore knew he was going to die. But now she understood, it was all a plan. Everything he did was calculated carefully, even his own death.

__

It is key that you keep a steady mind Miss Granger, and though that might be extremely hard under the circumstance you might be in, you must do so in order for this to go smoothly…

The screams and shouts coming from the battle soon become distant as she hurried up staircases and halls until she finally reached her destination, Dumbldedores' old office. Quickly she ran behind the desk and towards the empty portrait of Albus Dumbledore.

__

Make your way through the rooms and do not stop until you have reached the very last room, the one Harry went in to face Voldemort those many years ago…Once you are inside, you will see the Mirror of Erised.

"_Alohomora!"_ Hermione cried, pointing her wand at the cabinet, followed by a soft click indicating that the spell had worked. Hermione scrambled around the messy shelf full with trinkets, her eyes shifting all around for the box Dumbledore described and sighed in relief when she finally found it burrowed in the very back. With shaking hands she opened the box and gazed at the small chip before shutting it once more and running hurriedly out of the room for the third floor.

__

Go behind the mirror and say clearly

Destino! A _mark shall appear after you that of the Deathly Hallows…Take the scope and press directly in the middle of the symbol. As soon as you have done this the scope will start to glow and heat up slightly._

Bursting through the third floor door, Hermione took a moment to regain her breath before casting various charms to make sure she was not detected and would not become detected. And with a sad glance at the door she made her way into the room with the trap door; remorse and pain finally coursing into her broken heart. Glancing behind her one last time with a torn heart, it was then Hermione noticed the blood that had been trailing behind her. Looking down at herself she saw blood dripping down her arms and legs, some of it dripping onto the box clutched in her hands.

A flick of her wrist and the blood was gone…

With a clang, she shut the trap door and cursed herself inside…

__

Proceed to turn it counter clockwise and then clockwise. Push the scope in until it has merged with the symbol as one.

Her feet felt like they weighed a ton as she went through the rooms that she had six years ago gone through with Ron and Harry. They were nothing but curious children back then, just looking for adventure. Harry's adventures were all over now…_Harry!_

She thought tears slipping through her eyes like a river as she finally reached her destination. The mirror of Erised_. _

_Once you have completed that the mirror will start to glow, it is then that it is when you should place yourself in front of the mirror and picture in your mind a Hogwarts not yet disturbed be the horrible deeds of Voldemort. A time when he was not powerful yet. It is essential that you do this Miss Granger, Hermione, and if all goes well you will no longer be able to see yourself in the middle but instead a shimmering light._

"_Destino!_" Hermione said in a surprisingly clear voice since she had been crying only second before. She then took the slightly bloody telescope and did as Dumbledore instructed; as promised the mirror started to glow. Taking a calming breath and emptying her mind of the pain and the hurt she felt she stepped around the mirror and stood in front, emptying her mind of everything and thinking of only a place that was not plagued with Voldemort.

A place…

A time that did not have to live in fear by the cruelty of the dark lord…

And soon she could not see her dirty, tear stained face anymore or that happy place but was blinded by the shimmering light.

__

When this occurs then it is time for you to step through the worm hole or portal, and to just where you need to go. To a time where it can all be stopped…You will know what to do once you get to where you need to go, should it come to this.

For if it does than I will say this to you…

Good Luck Hermione for you are the last hope for the wizarding world.

Albus Dumbledore

Clutching the telescope in her hand as a feeling of no return consumed her, Hermione stepped into the shimmering light and away from the world she once knew. Her last thought was of why one person would ever want to cause so much pain and destruciton…

Before she knew no more.


	2. chapter 2

Chapter 2: Trespassing

It was a strange sensation going into the light. She had thought for a second that maybe Dumbledore had killed her. Had given her instructions on how to die for she did not feel any pain and the bright white void and strange black blurs all around her was strangely comforting, nothing to focus on.

But upon further inspection Hermione had realized that the blurs where most definitely something.

They were clocks.

Clocks that zoomed by her in such a fast rate that she almost couldn't focus on them but she did notice that some were small and some were big, and if she listened hard Hermione could here faintly the sound of clocks ticking.

Incidentally Hermione had been focusing so much on observing what was before her to notice that she was approaching, not the end, but the end of where _she _was going. It was due to this that she was not prepared to suddenly slam down onto solid ground.

Pain rippled through her already damaged body at the abrupt fall onto the tough stone floor; the telescope flying from her hand as she screamed out her pain with a chilling cry when her head and back made a brutal impact.

Darkness clouded her vision from smacking her head and she felt as if she could not move, as if all her bones were broken

A thought flashed into her mind that she might be paralyzed having landed on her back so hard but after a quick test she found that, even though it hurt immensely to do so, she could still move.

Minutes went by and her quick, gasping breaths evened out even though the pain was still there.

It was then that Hermione opened her eyes and took in her dark surroundings. Blinking as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she noticed that she was in the exact same spot that she was in before she went through the worm hole, except she was now laying down instead of standing up.

Shock filled her body and her breathing once again went erratic.

__

Why am I still here? Did I make a mistake? Did I fail? If I go outside, will Voldemort still be here, killing innocent people like Harry?

Tears streamed down her face and for the first time since her third year Hermione felt overcome with a feeling of hopelessness, of loneliness.

What could she do now? Broken and bloody on this floor, still unable to move; what could she possibly do to save them now? Was she to die here in a puddle of her own blood? With her heart torn in pieces?

How many more will die?

Will Ron?_ Oh God Ron! _She thought, the image of his goofy face after their first kiss emerging back into her mind.

__

Ron!

RON!!

RON!!

Now fully sobbing despite the pain it caused her to do so, Hermione felt no greater wish than to be in his embrace. To make sure he was okay and alive.

Because if he wasn't…

Then what would be left for her? What reason would she have to stay here on this earth if he was not on it? Without him and Harry, what did she have?

__

Nothing. She thought before the pain in her body and the amount of blood lost and emotional overrun became too much and she passed out.

XxXxXxXxXx

"- all torn sir! And so much blood!"

Hermione clenched her eyes tightly wishing that whoever was talking would just shut up. Her head felt like it had been run over by a hundred pound truck and the more the woman spoke the more it worsened.

"Do you think she was…" this voice was slightly better than the one of the woman, timid, lower. Definitely male. Maybe even an old man.

"I don't know Headmaster but if you let me make a proper checkup than I will be able to tell you! Now leave and let me do my job!" the woman said shrilly, Hermione would have winced if it was not for the fact that her body felt like lead.

She refused to wake up, the pain she felt all over her body and head was just too much. She needed to sleep…

She needed to not feel…

"I'm just concerned for the girl, she was obviously attacked! How she got in here is a mystery to me and it will not do well for the school to have any other attacks after what happened with the chamber of secrets!" His voice was slightly whinny and instantly annoyed Hermione. She really wished it would go away.

"I know this Dippet now let me examine the girl and then if she is able, you may question her when she wakes. Now leave!" the woman demanded sternly. Sounds of footsteps retreating reached Hermione's ears before the door slammed and now only one pair of footsteps came back.

But Hermione's mind was reeling. At the name Dippet, Hermione had opened her heavy shocked eyes and was surprised to find herself somewhere… quite familiar. _The hospital wing.' _she thought with shock

She had passed out before the footsteps could reach her.

XxXxXxXxXx

Hermione's eyes opened slowly as she came to. Immediately she felt the difference in her body. Her head was no longer pounding and her body did not feel so broken and sore as it did before. Though she still doubted that she could move too much or too quickly.

Feeling as if she wasn't alone, Hermione raised her gaze and her eyes immediately snapped to the two figures standing next to her bed. She almost screamed but no sound came, only a jerck of fright, which sent a burst of pain through her body.

Closing her eyes and clenching her teeth, Hermione missed the apologetic look the woman had on her chubby face and the curious one on the boys'.

"Oh I'm sorry dear. Didn't mean to frighten. Just came to do a little check up on you. Tom I think its best if you leave now." She said addressing someone Hermione couldn't quite see.

"Yes Madam Gaudier." A boy's voice replied before Hermione heard the sounds of someone receding.

"Good bye Tom. You have a nice day." she replied sweetly before turning back to Hermione. "How are you feeling?" she asked, her voice gentle but still painful to Hermione's ears.

Hermione's immediate response was to give her a biting retort. _How do you think I'm feeling?_ But instead Hermione calmed herself down.

"Not good." she said, her voice hoarse.

"Yes, well hopefully these will help that. I couldn't give it to you while you slept, but here you are. And mind the taste dear, not exactly pleasant." She replied picking up a dark vial that stood surrounded by three other bottles.

Hermione grimaced but took the bottle anyway and gulped it down almost gagging on her first swallow of it.

With disgust evident on her face, Hermione set back down the empty vial and let a shiver run down her spin.

"What was that for?" she asked the lady curiously. The woman picked up a dark green vial that already had Hermione nauseous before replying.

"Your head dear, see you got a nasty concussion, so that will help with that. And this will help with the blood loss you sustained from those ghastly cuts."

"Blood replenishing potion." Hermione thought out loud before chugging it down with a frown. The lady nodded a smile on her face.

"Yes. And this one here will help with the pain you are feeling on your ribs and back, and the last one will put you back into a dreamless sleep." she explained as Hermione drank down the potions.

"Thank you." she said sighing at the reduced amount of pain.

"You're welcome." the woman said before Hermione once again became unconscious. A feeling of comfort and familiarty settling her nerves nicely.

XxXxXxXxXxX

Before Hermione had even opened her eyes she knew that she would be staying up much longer this time than before, for it was not the lady's voice she heard around her bed but instead the voice of the man she had been speaking to the first time Hermione woke up.

"-should be fine now! Surely I can just speak with her!"

"She is _sleeping _and she most definitely needs her rest! The examinations I did on her showed just how much this girl was damaged. A concussion, broken ribs and bones, bruises and long gashes all over her dirty body and she has enough magical residue inside of her than I have seen in my entire career! There are even side effects of the Cruciatus curse on her! She needs rest and I will be _damned _to take that away because of _your _curiosity! Now away!" The healer demanded.

"Now listen here Epona-" His voice abruptly sternly but stopped at Hermione's weak groan. She had tried to suppress it because she really didn't want to talk to this man for she had no idea what horrible news she would find out if she did.

"Headmaster!" The woman now identified as Epona said sounding appalled as the curtain was pushed aside and Hermione eyes locked onto the old mans standing above her, an excited smile on his face.

"Look, she's awake now Epona!" He said pointing rather rudely at her. But Hermione was in too much shock, for standing in front of her was a dead man.

"Armando Dippet." Hermione said feebly, still in shock; her mind going a mile a minute.

His face became pleasantly surprised.

"Why yes, and what is your name dear?" But Hermione was no longer listening to the man.

Armando Dippet…

Armando Dippet.

Dippet.

And then it clicked and all made sense and in that moment Hermione wanted nothing more that to curse Dumbledore to the next century.

Armando Dippet was the headmaster of Hogwarts in the 1930, 1940's era. This meant that Dumbledore had taken her far into the past. Way further than she could ever go with a time turner.

It all made sense now. Hermione actually felt sort of stupid for how long it took her to realize but she excused herself thinking that it was because of the shock of everything that has happened in the past twenty four hours.

She should have realized it right when she had heard Dippet's name come from Epona's mouth that she was no longer in her era. And deep down Hermione probably did realize and that was why she fainted before, from shock.

"Miss?" a questionable voice cut through her thoughts, bringing her back to the present. Or was it the past?

Hermione eyes snapped to the old man and she took a deep breath, resisting the urge to hyperventilate or have a major break down at her sudden realization.

"Sir, co-could you tell me what the date is?" she asked her voice wary and shaky. He blinked in surprise.

"Well, it would be Saturday, May 15, 1943. Now, could you please tell me what your name is Miss?" He inquired.

"Hermione." She responded automatically.

"And how did you get here Hermione?" Hermione closed her eyes, her breathing becoming erratic and shallow.

"I-" She had no idea what to say. Should she tell him that she was from the future? Should she lie?

Wait, Grindelwald was still around in this time.

She could…

"I don't remember how I got here sir," she started coolly, her panic dissipating as she came up with her lie, "I just remember that I was at home with my family when we were all the sudden attacked and then I draw a blank." she said feigning confusion and fright hoping that her skills at lying have improved since the time in Borgin and Bukes. Luckily for her Dippet was a gullible man. He frowned, unhappy with her lack of knowledge.

"Do you even know where you are?" he asked sort of rudely.

"Yes, I'm in Hogwarts School."

"Are you a student at Hogwarts?"

"No sir, I got schooled in Beauxbatons."

"But you have an English accent!"

"Well you see sir, I've lived in Britain since I was ten years old but when my parents separated I went to live with my Dad in France, see I'm Muggleborn sir and muggles can get what's called a divorce-"

"I know what divorce is." He cut through impatiently and Hermione blinked, realizing just _how _rude this man is.

"Well, my mum still lived in Britain and I still have accent from staying with her every summer." Hermione finished.

"Very well. That explains a lot. More than you probably know..." He said looking thoughtful.

"We knew about Grindelwald sir, it was because of him that I was put into hiding. I can't understand how he found us and now…" Hermione let her voice trail off and looked down at her covers, her heart beating a mile a minute, hoping that he did not catch her in her lie.

She released a breath she had been holding when Dippet reached down at her and patted her back with the tips of his fingers very lightly but Hermione still winced a little. She was still very sore

"There, there. Don't cry." he said awkwardly and Hermione almost smiled.

"I think that's enough Armando. The girl needs rest. Her concussion has not been fixed all the way and she is still-"

"Wait a few more moments Epona, I just have one more question. Hermione, what is your last name anyway, don't think I got that."

"Granger. Hermione Granger."

"Well Miss Granger, I must ask you if we could have the address to contact your mother and inform her of the resent events of your person and proceed to have her take you back into saftey." He said his voice all business.

"My mother is dead sir. She died just last year." Was her dull reply, thinking about her parents that she had obliviated of her ever being their daughter, the ones that she had sent packing to Australia. They were dead to her now anyway, or rather not even born yet.

A great sadness bloomed in Hermione chest and the expresson of sorrow that appeared on her face was not fake like the other had been, as tears threatened to release.

Her situation felt all the more serious now.

"I am very sorry to hear that Miss Granger. Perhaps there is someone else we could-"

"There is no one else to contact sir." she said blandly.

"Well then…" The old man sighed and rubbed his temples. "We could admit you into Hogwarts I suppose. How old are you Miss Granger?" he asked raising his head once more to look at her.

"I'm seventeen. But I did not go back to school for my seventh year since Grindelwald was attacking Muggleborns." she said suppressing her anguish and the desperate need she felt to cry.

"Well then you will have to retake your seventh year over again. I hope you do not mind finishing off this year with the sixth year classes and then returning next year as a seventh year would you? You'll be a little older than everybody but it would be better than sending you with the seventh years when schools' about to end…" He suggested actually politely. Hermione nodded.

"That would be fine sir."

__

Besides where else could I go in time I do not belong in? She thought bitterly, hating what Dumbledore threw her into without even a warning.

"Good then. We'll sort you in once you are all better Miss. Granger. Until then, good day. Epona." he said nodding at the frustrated nurse as he walked out.

"Wait!" Hermione called out to him despite her slightly hoarse voice. Dippet stopped and turned towards her.

"Who found me inside of that room and brought me here?" she asked curiously.

"Well a boy by the name of Tom Riddle found you in the room, said he heard you scream and went to investigate when he was potrolling around the school. But it was Professor Dumbledore who brought you to the Hospital Wing. You'll find out who those people are quickly and then you can thank them. Now if that is all?"

"Yes, thank you sir." she whispered at his retreating form feeling almost numb. Tom Riddle had found her in that room. Found her all bloody and a mess. She had been in the Dark Lords presence, alone and powerless to stop him from _anything_.

But at the distruption of Dippet colliding with someone just entering the room brought Hermione out of those thoughts, as Dippet cried out when he almost fell onto the floor. He would have fallen if it wasn't for the hand that emerged from red robes to steady him.

"So glad to bump into you, Armando! How is the girl doing?" A too cheery voice sounded from the door way, making Hermione's' heart almost stop. Her eyes never strayed from the tall figure of an auburn haired Dumbledore even as half of him disappeared behind the figure of the healer stalking towards the two…

"She's fine Albus. You can actually speak to her yourself since she's-" Armando started to reply, obviously not noticing the enraged witch charging towards them with her wand poised and ready.

"No! No more visitors! The girl needs rest and I will not have anyone else pestering her anymore with hurtful questions. Now both of you go!" she said waving them off aggresively.

"My dear Epona surely she could spare five minutes of her time, I am only concerned on how the girl who was so beaten when I had brought her here to the hospital for your care, is doing. If she can not handle that then I will leave." Dumbledore said smiling down at the woman.

Epona seemed like she was about to scream at him, her hands on her hips and her body tensing before it all seemed to go away with a whoosh of her breathe. It reminded Hermione a lot like Mrs. Weasley would do when her children did something to displease her. The remindance was a little painful yet comforting all the same.

"Fine Albus. But you've got only _five _minutes." The nurse said sternly before heading off to her office.

When Dumbledore turned back to her, Hermione immediately felt a sense of unease from the man, which was quite odd since he always seemed so jolly and gay.

"Well now. How are you feeling Miss-?" He inquired politely

"Granger. My name is Hermione Granger." she said numbly as she stared into her dead Professor's face.

Merlin this was just too much for her to handle at such a short time.

She should _not _be speaking to this man before her. She should _not _be laying in this bed at this time. She should _not _be in 1943.

She should be back at the battlefield with Ron, taking out as many no good death eaters as she can, surrounded by fighters fulfilling her duty so she could finally be relieved of it all.

How could Dumbledore do this to her? How could he just send her back in time without any warning. Without any help.

Or hope.

"Miss Granger.? Are you alright?" Hermione blinked away the tears in her eyes and took a deep breath as Dumbledore's final words in his letter to her rang through her head.

__

Good luck Hermione, for you are the last hope for the Wizarding World.

__

She was the last hope left.

"I'm Fine." Hermione replied, though she felt anything but. Yet, she could not lose her composure, she had to let go of her emotions. She had to get a hold of herself. She had no other choice. _Plan B cannot fail_.

"Are you certain?" he said his piercing eyes searching her own as she nodded. He stared at her for a moment longer.

"I do not wish to upset you Miss. Granger and I know Epona told us not to ask you any emotional questions but I'm afraid I must. So tell me now if you wish me to come when you feel you are ready-"

"It is alright Professor." Hermione replied feeling prepared or at least accepting. Dumbledore nodded satisfied with her answer. She couldn't repress the shiver though that went down her spin as Dumbledore fixed her with a penetrating stare and leaned in closer to her.

"Whatever you have told Headmaster Dippet I know is a lie Miss. Granger. I ask that you please tell me the truth." Dumbledore said, his blue eyes piercing her own, no twinkle evident in their depths.

Hermione sighed knowing that out of anyone in this time, Dumbledore would be the best ally. Besides there was no use lying to him anyway, he would find out eventually.

"I did lie to Dippet but if I tell the truth about how I got here then I'm afraid that the outcome could be potentially dangerous." Hermione replied, knowing that it was dangerous to meddle with time.

"I already know how you got here Miss.Granger since I am the one developing your transportation device." Hermione's eyes widened in shock.

"You mean you're the one who made the portal?" Hermoine said in realization. Dumbledore smiled at her for the first time since his arrival.

"Why yes. The only thing is, I haven't finished it yet so I'm quite baffled by how you got here. If my assumption is correct, which I highly doubt it wouldn't be, then I must have successfully finished it in the near future," His smile brightened for a second and a gleam came to his eyes once more, "Excellent!" he said excited, his eyes going far away for a moment before he was brought back to the present. He fixed his blue eyes onto her, his face transforming into an expression of puzzlement..

"My concern is, however, why I would not only _tell _someone about my invention but also let someone _use _it, since the main competent of the time travler is such an unpredictable tool, time itself," At this his eyes locked onto her own so intensely and Hermione almost shrunk away from him. "You are so young Miss. Granger. So why would I send you back even with the risks I know traveling back has?" he whispered, Hermione blinked.

"I'm not entirely sure sir." Hermione said though that was a lie.

"I see. Perhaps you can give me your thoughts on why I would send you back." He suggested after a tense pause. Hermione frowned.

"I would rather not discuss that here Professor."

"Then perhaps you would come visit my office once you are all recovered and-"

"Five minutes have long since past Albus! Its time for you to go, this girl is still suffering from a concussion!" Called the nurse as she strided towards them, Albus finally let her gaze go.

"Epona, surely-"

"No Albus! I must distribute these three potions to the girl in order for her to recover properly. You can talk to her when she is all better and if I can do my job that could be pretty soon!" Dumbledore raised his hands in surrender before smiling at Hermione and leaving the hospital wing.

She stared after him even when the doors closed behind him, before looking back at the pudgy lady in front of her.

"When will I be able to leave here Madam-?"

"Miss. Gaudier but that makes me feel so old. Call me Epona dear." she said waving her wand all around Hermione's body, her wand tip emitting a silvery glow. The wand tip changed colors when she waved it at her stomach into a red glow and she tusked before moving her wand still further up; the tip did not change colors.

"It seems that you are still very damaged Miss. Granger." She said sadly picking up a big tub filled with a green almost see through substance. Epona must have noticed her appalled stare for she smiled at Hermione gently.

"Not to worry! I'm going to put this on your bruises and scraps. For some reason I cannot heal them with any spells since it seems that they have a charm placed on them. So its now all up to this, which unfortunately is a longer progress than just a simple healing charm but it will have to do. Now if you could lift up your shirt so I can put on the cream on." she said and Hermione lifted up her shirt, exposing her bruised ribs; her stomach though, seemed fine.

"Why are you putting that onto my stomach? It doesn't look like there's any damage." Hermione wondered to the lady.

"It's for the residue of magic in your system still from the Cruciatus curse and other things. This cream will get into you blood stream and pull it all out. But it will take a while. You were obviously not treated after the spell had been cast on you and so it needs to be all flushed out." she said and Hermione grimaced. It explained why she would all the sudden feel bursts of pain after Bellatrix had crucioed her almost ten times.

"There. Now if you could-"

A loud bang interrupted what the nurse was going to say as the doors for the Hospital wing was thrown open and three boys hustled in wearing what Hermione recognized as the Slytherin Quidditch uniforms. One of the boys who was obviously knocked out, was supported between the other two, his head bouncing with every step they took.

"Miss Gaudier!" the boy on the left of the knocked out boy called out to the shocked nurse who immediately sprang into action.

"What happened?" she asked as she went over to three and directed them to the bed next to Hermione, who was busy raising herself onto her elbows to get a better look at the three, even though it hurt to do so.

She knew immediately that the boy who had shouted out Epona's name was a Malfoy. If his pale blond hair, that only a Malfoy could pull off, wasn't enough proof then the aristocratic nose and arrogant demeanor definitely gave it away as he straightened up to his full height, which was pretty tall.

Her eyes then snapped to the handsome raven haired boy next to him that immediately reminded Hermione of Harry. A brutal pang to her heart almost brought tears to her eyes but she composed herself, forcing the pain down before observing him better.

His hair was way too neat to be Harry's anyway, and his strong bone structure of his face was nothing like Harry's more childish one; this boys' was almost dangerous. He was just an inch or so shorter then Malfoy as he too straightened up to his full height and looked down at the boy they just deposited onto the bed with unimpressed dark eyes.

The said knocked out boy had light brown hair and his face was less aristocratic of the other two but Hermione deduced that it could be because of the fact that he was not awake.

"He got hit with a blugder during practice. Fell off his broom about fifteen feet in the air. We sent him as quickly as we could." The blacked haired boy explained coolly to the nurse.

"Right then. You two may leave, I'll just finish up with her and then take care of him." Epona said grimacing.

Immediately the two boy's eyes snapped to her body and Hermione was painfully aware that her shirt was still up and that if she brought it down that the balm would get all over it.

Both boys' however seemed to either not notice or just didn't care. Though the raven haired boy did raise a dark eyebrow at her making her blush and avert his gaze for a second before rising them again and watching them both saunter out of the room.

"Don't know why kids seem to enjoy this sport so much! All it does is break bones! Might as well just throw yourself down the stairs for the good it will do ya!" the nurse mumbled absentmindedly as she picked up one of the vials from the table beside the bed and gave it to Hermione to drink, which she reluctantly did so.

"Miss. Gaudier-"

"Epona dear." she interrupted.

"Epona, who were those two boys?" Hermione asked curiously indicating the two who had just left.

"Well the charming dark haired one is Tom Riddle, prefect since fifth year, extremely smart and polite and the blond is his friend Abraxas Malfoy. And this one-" she said gesturing to the boy on the bed. "-is Gale Nott."

Hermione blinked and continued to blink in shock.

"Are you alright?" Epona asked.

But Hermione was no longer paying attention. As soon as she said the name Tom Riddle, Hermione felt too disgusted to answer. She had never seen Tom Riddle before, only Harry was able to see him through the diary and his description of the boy was not flattering. But to see him and actually think he was handsome, Hermione grimaced, someone who would grow up to be so heartless, so cruel, to be put on a pedestal like how Epona just did.

It made Hermione feel sick

Though she also suspected that it was also because she was just a few feet away from the future dark lord who raised an army to ambush and destroy Hogwarts, who's life mission was to get rid of muggleborns, who killed her best friend…

"Miss Granger?" Epona's concerned voice brought Hermione out of her reverie.

"Oh yes, I'm fine Epona. Just went into a daydream I suppose." Hermione responded taking the vial that the nurse had in her hands and gulping down the disgusting liquid in one swallow. Epona raised her eyebrows at her with a slightly knowing look in her eye.

"If you remember from earlier what Headmaster Dippet had said, Tom Riddle was the one who found you. Very sweet boy he is. Magnificently good at making potions. Proffesor Slughorn, the potions teacher, lets Tom make them for me sometimes since Tom is his sort of like an assistant for him. Sends them down to me and helps store them to! If I was only twenty years younger." she said wistfully with a wink to Hermione.

She felt like gagging.

"Now, back to healing. I need you to roll over on your stomach Hermione. The cream is dry by now and I need to put some more on your back."

And so her treatment went on until Epona said she was done and moved onto the boy, Gale Nott.

Strangely, Hermione felt a sense of recognition at the name that she just couldn't place. She had watched Epona waving her wand all around him muttering incantations under her breath hoping that if she looked at him long enough the answer would just come to her.

But sadly it didn't so she just shrugged the feeling off.

It was only when she was finishing off her first plate of food in days did Hermione remember and she almost spat out her food in surprise. Nott had been the last name of one of the death eaters they had captured in Hermione's fifth year at the ministry of magic.

She also recalled his son, Theordor Nott, a slytherin in the same grade she was in when she was still at Hogwarts before the take over by Voldemort. She had sometimes seen him in the library reading. It was shocking that the boy who laid unconscious on the bed next to her was his grandfather.

__

Weird. Hermione thought gazing once more at the brown haired boys sleeping face, but she guessed that she should get used to seeing grandparents of people she went to school with in her time.

It gave her an unsettling feeling.

For Hermione should _never _even see a grandparents of people she went to class with, unless of coarse they were gray haired and old. She should not be talking to them while they were still in their youth, still getting educated and making their childish mistakes.

It just wasn't right. It was not her time. But then again it was time that brought her here in the first place.

Or actually Dumbledore, but still.

Besides, she still had no idea what Dumbledore was trying to accomplish bringing her so far back.

Yet at the same time not far enough.

If he had wanted her to kill Tom Riddle, then shouldn't he have brought her to when Riddle was just born or still very young? Though to kill a defenseless little boy who had yet to commit a murder was just as hard as killing someone who had already taken two other innocent lives and had magnificent power. How Dumbledore expected her to do either one was beyond her knowledge.

So she deduced that he did not send her back to kill Tom Riddle.

So what in the name of Merlin was she to do?

__

Think Hermione, think! Dumbledore had said in his letter that I would know what to do once I got to where I needed to go so the answer has to be practically in front of my face, so just think_. What could end it all?_ Hermione asked herself searching her mind for an answer.

"Ugh! My head hurts" said a gruff voice from beside her, almost making Hermione jump out of her skin at the sudden interruption of her thoughts. Her eyes immediately snapped over to the person on the bed next to hers who was trying to sit up with a pained expressoin on his face.

She watched as he blinked a couple of times as he lay back heavily onto his pillows rubbing his head gingerly unable to get up. Green eyes suddenly locked on hers when he had realized that he was being watched.

Seconds passed and neither spoke a word, just continued to stare.

Hermione gazed at him with interest, he gazed at her with surprise before his face became impassive, though his eyes gave him away with their curiousity.

She noted that Nott was not a very charismatic guy, easy to look over in a crowd. But as Hermione continued to stare at him she noticed that he _could _be slightly good looking. His brown hair fell into his slightly hooded green eyes, red slightly thin lips, long angular face like his nose. It was a balanced face, not too much bad, not too much good, she concluded.

Heels clicked on the floor as the nurse bussled over, successfully ending their silent inspections of one another.

"Well I'm glad to see that you've finally woken up Mr. Nott. You've suffered from a very hard fall from a bludger. Cost you a few broken ribs and a concussion which seems to be the latest trend around here. You'll have to drink up these vials that I brought with me. And I want no ifs or buts about it!" She said wiggling her finger at the protesting boy who was too weak to put up a good enough fight.

Epona then turned to her when she was satisfied with Nott.

"All done with your food Ms. Granger?" she asked kindly with a smile which Hermione returned.

"Yes I am, tnanks. I was wondering if perhaps I could be discharged now? I feel all better and I must admit I am quite eager to get back to school." Hermione said handing over the empty trey to the nurse who vanished it.

"I'm afraid not dear. I'm still not done with curing your concussion! Once I'm done with that, then you may leave but until you are to stay bed written." She responded to a frowning Hermione.

"And how long will that be?" she asked warily.

"I dare say about a day or two from today." answered the witch thoughtfully. Hermione groaned.

"But I feel just fine! Perhaps I can just take the required potions at the given time _out _of the hospital wing? That way I'll be able to get to class and still get healed." Hermione suggested desperately. She did not want to be in the hospital wing any longer. She wanted to talk to Dumbledore, she wanted to get to the library, she wanted to go somewhere that she could ball her eyes out like a baby at scream at the heavens for burdening her with such a heavy destiny.

"Miss Granger surely you must know that teachers aren't allowed to give students potions without monitoring them. Besides your body still needs its rest! I don't know why you are in such a rush to get back to class when you are obviously still way too weak from the previous encounter you had. You need to let your body, and even your soul, recuperate from this or you'll just end up back in here!" The nurse stated truthfully.

Hermione sighed dejectedly as she looked out at a far out window and at the blue and white sky that seemed so normal. For some reason she expected it to have fallen or collapsed, like her world.

"But I'm so bored." Hermione mumbled pathetically, making the witch smile kindly down at her.

"I'm sure that Mr. Nott can keep you company while you heal here so your not bored anymore. He could inform you on what you need to know about Hogwarts. Right Gale?" The nurse suggested looking expectantly at the oblivious boy. Nott blinked in surprise, not expecting to be addressed so suddenly but nodded none the less.

Epona smiled brilliantly as she turned to Hermione.

"There you go! Entertainment. Now excuse me but I need to finish some things in my office." The nurse said as she hurried out of sight. Hermione sighed feeling thoroughly put out at having to stay.

Silence filled the hospital wing as Hermione sat on her bed feeling uncomfortable being alone with Nott. This boy was obviously not like Harry or Ron and she really didn't know what to say to him to stop the silence.

"So. Your name is Gale Nott?" Hermione stated rather than questioned. He just kept looking at her with his hooded eyes, not justifying that with an answer, making Hermione feel really stupid. She had to force herself not to shift uncomfortably.

"What year are you in?" She asked sort of nervously while at the same time trying to get a hold of herself. She wasn't some un-socialized fist year that couldn't strike up a good conversation for Merlin sake!

"My sixth year." was his curt reply before he closed the curtains around his bed.

Hermione gaped at the curtains for a moment absolutely baffled by his behavior before anger raged in her for his blatant rudeness.

With an enraged cry Hermione grabbed her wand from the bedside table, ignoring the pain that shot up her arm at doing so and pointed it at the curtains ripping them off their hinges and making it fly to the other side of the room with a quick slash of her wand.

Nott just blinked.

"How dare you! That was appallingly rude! I have never encountered such a blatant regard for someone such as this; and that is saying something!" She raved, glaring at the passive boy. "If you did not wish to speak to me a polite excuse like a _real _gentleman would have sufficed! Now apologize!" Hermione demanded harshly, her eyes blazing at the expressionless looking boy.

"I am rather sorry. I had just assumed you were done, I see however that you were not." he said staring rather dully at her.

Hermione blinked not knowing if he was being general or not. She assumed that he wasn't but after a wave of exhaustion passed over her from her rather excited movements, Hermione decided to let it slide, besides, he reminded her too much of Severus Snape.

"Thank you." Hermione responded curtly before she waved her wand and the curtains returned to his bed. She gave the boy one last glare before she waved her wand at her own curtains and shut them around her bed, still glaring in the direction of the boy before falling into a fitful sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three: So it begins

For Hermione, two days could not past fast enough. Nott was awfully curt and reclusive to the point that Hermione wanted to hex him just to see if he what his reaction would be. Just to get a rouse out of him.

The days were long and boring and often times Hermione found herself drifting into memories of when Harry and Ron were still with her. When she would come and visit them in the hospital wing, or visa versa.

Now no one would come to visit her.

She was completely alone and it took all Hermione had to not let herself cry. To hold on until she was alone because even though Nott did not talk, she knew he still listened and observed and she did not want him to hear her or see her cry. To see her weak.

But occasionally the memories became just too rough and silent tears would stream down her face.

Out of loneliness or desperation, Hermione found herself more than once calling out the nurse just to have someone to talk to. Just to get her mind off of the past.

Needless to say, Hermione was very relieved when the nurse gave her the final batch of potions she needed on Tuesday morning and sent her on her way, telling her how to get to the Headmaster's office, even though Hermione already knew how to get there. Not that Epona knew that.

Although, Hermione did not go to the Headmasters office right after she was let out, but instead she made a detour to Dumbledore's Transfigurations classroom knowing that she needed to talk to Dumbledore before anyone else.

Walking down the halls of Hogwarts was a very surreal feeling for Hermione. Memories of the times she would go adventuring around the school with Harry and Ron kept popping up in her mind with every twist and turn she made into a hallway. It was so strange for them to not be with her. So strange how Hogwarts was so undamaged when the last time she walked the halls, walls were being blown up, statues were charging at death eaters and people were either dying, fighting or fleeing; the screams vibrating off the walls.

Now the halls were silent, students and teachers all calm in their classrooms with no fear, no war.

Not yet anyway.

Feeling a familiar emptiness in the center of her chest Hermione tried to push aside the depressing thoughts and focus strictly on the present. She could not let herself dwell in the past.

She did not have the time.

Hermione poised her hand to knock on the door when she finally arrived to Dumbledore's classroom and was unsurprised when it opened before she could knock.

Stepping nervously into the familiar yet unfamiliar classroom, Hermione realized that she had interrupted Dumbledore while he was teaching.

Thirty pairs of eyes all stared at her questionably from around the room, all except for a group of Slytherins who gazed at her with dismissal expressions. They all looked to be about seventh years but she wasn't really sure.

"Miss. Granger! Lovely to see you in such a well state of health. If you please; my office is just right there. I'll be with you in a pop of a lemon drop!" Dumbledore said chuckling at his little ryhme, his blue eyes twinkling with the familiar merry glint. Hermione gave a feeble smile at him before scurrying across the room and into his office quickly, not comfortable with all that attention on her.

Sitting down at the chair in front of the large desk in front of her, Hermione let her eyes roam around the office, taking in the her surroundings.

Unlike Proffesor McGonagall, Dumbldore's office had many trinkets and books that gave it a welcoming feeling. It was very much like the his office when he was Headmaster with the exception that there was no portraits of the headmasters before him.

Spotting a strange three dimensional silver instrument, Hermione couldn't help her curiosity and reached over across the table and brought it over to her, peering at the runes and other stange symbols she couldn't understand all over it in a messy, disorganized way. Some of them were exactly alike and Hermione wondered at what it could mean.

"Ah, I see you have picked up on my most recent source of entertainment, the _Equino_, very hard little thing to solve." Dumbledore said brightly as she jumped a mile in the air at his silent arrival, his blue eyes, however, did not have the familiar sparkle they had moments before.

But Hermione was too embarrassed at being caught snooping to really notice. She hastly returned the object to its place and looked up with a flush on her cheeks at the Transfiguration Proffessor.

"Sorry Proffessor, it just caught my eye and I-" She started but was cut off with a dismissive wave from Dumbledore.

"Not to worry, no harm done. Now, I wish to speak to you of more important matters. I am afraid that due to the state you were in while at the hospital wing I was not able to ask as much as I wanted to. You haven't been to Headmaster Dippet yet, have you Miss. Granger?" Hermione shook her head no.

"Good. Now I was hoping Miss. Granger that perhaps you could cure me of my curiosity. It will help if you start from the beginning." He said imploringly, Hermione cringed.

"Well you see Professor, I cant start from the beginning. If I tell you the future it could only do damage. You told me that yourself." Hermione said, Dumbledore grimace but nodded.

"I see. Well, perhaps you can tell me about yourself?" Dumbledore stated more than asked.

"Well um, my name really is Hermione Granger and I would have graduated from Hogwarts this year but I never got to seventh year since…well I just couldn't since I had to help with some important things. I am seventeen and a Muggleborn. I was considered the brightest witch of my age, but that probably changed now since I'm not actually in my age anymore am I?" Hermione said giggling slightly, though her eyes had began to water. Through her tears she could see the sympathy on Dumbledore's face so she forced herself to calm down before she could go into hysterics like she so very much wanted to.

"It is alright to be upset Ms. Granger. This isn't a situation that is easily adjustable. I can only _imagine _the kind of lonliness and abandonment you must be feeling." Dumbledore said his normally twinkling eyes dim with sympathy. Hermione bit her lip at his kind words and willed her tears to go away yet they only got worse…like silent waterfalls running down her face.

Furiously, Hermione wiped her face against the constant flow of tears. She didn't want to cry, to seem so weak in front of the man whom she put in the highest regard. Tears wouldn't help her in her situation, all it would do is make her not only feel weaker but also make her seem unfit to handle her position.

"I-I'm so-rry, I just-" she bit her lip again as Dumbledore shook his head and gave her a kind smile.

"Do not be, Ms. Granger, just… let it out." As if he triggered a switch, Hermione felt a sob rip from her chest as everything from the past days finally overwhelmed and she realized the enormity of her situation, of everything she left behind and would face her in this god awful time.

And she let it out, let her mind think about Ron's smiling face after she had just kissed him, of Harrys pale and limp body cradled in Hagrid's shaking arms. Of her pain, _their _pain while they were in hiding. Of her pain of now finding herself all alone in what very well could be the most dangerous situation she's ever faced.

Stuck alone in time with Tom Riddle…

She let it out, no longer seeing Dumbledore's understanding and solemn blue eyes in front of her but losing herself in her misery until finally, there was no longer any tears for her to cry and she was left emotionally drained in her seat.

A pregnant pause followed after in which Hermione took the time to pull herself back together enough to not once again fall into a fit of tears just _looking _at Dumbledore.

"I'm so sorry Professer-" Hermione began only for Dumbledore to, once again, silence her apology.

"No Ms. Granger. It is I, who is sorry. I can see that you have been put through a great ordeal that many others would not be able to handle. It is very commendable actually, how well you're handling your situation." Dumbledore said and in a very familiar gesture, leaned back in his seat and brought the tips of his fingers together in thoughtfulness.

"Thank you sir." Hermione responded, grimacing at how hoarse her voice sounded. Dumbledore gave her a slight smile in return.

"Now, you are probably wondering just how everything will work out? I'm sure Headmaster Dippit will want you to be immediately sorted into a house and set up your class schedule. After then you could either go into which ever house you make it into or you can wait up here until dinner where we can introduce you to the school so as to qualm unwanted curiosity, or if you perfer, you can just go to your common room and get some rest and we can announce your presence without you actually present…" Dumbledore stated. Hermione shook her head.

"I would rather be there, just sort of plunge into the deep end and get it over with." Hermione said sighing. Dumbledore nodded looking relieved.

"Good, good." Dumbledore nodded appeased, before his eyes stared piercingly into hers, taking Hermione by surprised by their intensity.

"I know this is going to be very difficult for you Ms. Granger but I have full confidence that you will be able to get through this and I promise to help you in anyway I can. Never be afraid to ask." Dumbledore said sincerely. Hermione nodded, her eyes wide with surprise and gratitude at his words.

"Thank you Professor." Hermione said, averting her gaze as she felt a new wave of unreasonable tears pooled in her eyes. A pause came over them again as Hermione composed herself. It felt good to know that she had at least had a little comfort of something from her era here with her now. It helped her feel less alone.

"Now, I think its time for you to see headmaster Dippit as is time for me to get back to my class to which I am sure are anxiously awaiting my arrival. I left them a relatively time consuming assignment on the board that I'm sure many are ignoring but alas," Dumbledore stated with a delicate shrug of his shoulder. It brought a tiny smile to Hermione's face as she stood up with Dumbledore and made her way from the room.

"Thank you again Professor." Hermione said as he shut the door to his office.

"Not a problem Ms. Granger, just remember what I said." he responded kindly, his face breaking into a comforting smile as they walked into the classroom. Hermione nodded as her eyes drifted to the room full of students and felt a jolt of nervousness as many pairs of curious eyes landed on her as she walked out of Dumbledore's office.

Taking a hopefully, subtle breathe to calm her nerves, Hermione made her way through an isle as she made a beeline for the door, keeping her eyes forward on her escape. Abruptly her path was interrupted when a large text book was rudely dropped in front of her and nearly fell on her foot as she walked. She stumbled slightly and grasped the corner of a desk to help stop her fall, blushing at the sniggers that went all around at her expense.

Her wide eyes immediately landed on dark cold ones that nearly took her breath away as they gazed at her indifferently, though there was a smirk on his mouth that Hermione felt was way worse than the sniggers around her at how mocking and condescending it made her feel.

"Oh sorry. Would you mind picking that up." a high soprano voice said to her right and Hermione tore her gaze away from the guy in front of her to look into a pair of startling gray eyes that looked up at her with cruelness and faux innocence. The class burst out in laughter.

"Cassandra, no matter how amusing that might have seemed to your peers, it did not amuse me. Apologize to Ms. Granger please." Dumbledore's voice cut through the laughter like a knife and immediately the class silenced as the anxiously awaiting Cassandra's remark. Hermione however wasn't hearing a word Dumbledore was saying as she glared down at the girl with disgust and anger. _How dare she!_

Acting impusively, Hermione promptly kicked the offending book further down the isle and further away from the girl, plastering her own faux expression of innocence as she looked into the girls furious gray eyes.

"Oh sorry. Guess I can't help you." Hermione said into the red heads angered and shocked face at Hermione's audacity that Hermione herself could barely believe. Though after all the turmoil and suffering she had dealt with in the last few days or months really, she wasn't about to take any crap from stuck up girl who thought herself funny.

The girl opened her pouty red lips to resort, a perfectly curled lock of vibrant red hair, that just _had _to be magically enhanced, fell into her flashing gray eyes as the girl's expression darkened as the occupants in the room sniggered slightly.

"Oh you'll pay for that." the girl stated as she glared from under her lashes at Hermione who just smiled in return.

"Oh I'm sure." Hermione said sarcastically and noticed immediately when the girls hand drifted closer to her wand which lay on the table. Immediately, Hermione had her wand out and pointed at the red heads face before she could even blink.

_Let her try!_ Hermione thought darkly, feeling an unusual feeling bloom in her chest that she couldn't understand. She wanted the girl to try and curse her…she wanted an excuse to plummet someone around and let out all the anger and fustration out.

"That's enough. Please, Ms. Granger, I'm sure the Headmaster is awaiting your arrival…" Dumbledore said, bringing Hermione back to the present, which made her immediately nod and pocket her wand, feeling confident that she made her point across.

"Ms. Black I suggest you put away your wand before I issue out detentions." Dumbledore said sternly. Cassandra Black glared feircly at Hermione but lowered her wand. Hermione, realizing just exactly what kind of position she just put herself in- already making an enemy and almost initiating a duel in front of a classroom full of students and her future headmaster- blushed and turned to Dumbledore with a look of shame.

"I'm sorry Professor." Hermione said to which Dumbledore just waved away with a dismal hand.

"The headmaster Ms. Granger." The Professor pointed out kindly to which Hermione nodded and turned back around, making her way out of the classroom without any other disturbances but leaving all the students intrigued and curious. However it was Riddle's eyes she could feel burning into her back even as the door to the classroom was shut behind her.

Hermione closed her eyes as she leaned against the door and took a deep breathe. Her hands were shaking and her heart was pounding a mile a minute and the confrontation that just took place a second ago.

What in Merlin's beard had come over her just then? For her to act with such gall and snarkiness. Though she did have those instances with Malfoy where she had even surprised herself but normally it was with the safeness with Harry and Ron behind her and the fact that Malfoy was a boy and could only retribute with insults. But she didn't have Harry and Ron to back her up this time and surely this Cassandra girl wouldn't mind getting into a fight and Hermione wasn't known for her strength…

Hermione sighed and repressed a groan. This was not something she needed. She had just wanted to sit back in the shadows, observe and watch as everything played out around her until she figured out a way to get out of this mess and just what exactly the Dumbledore in her time wanted her to do here. And now because of her temper she not only captured the unwanted attention of mean pureblooded bitches but had also landed obvious intrest in pure evil itself. The Slytherin heir, the future Dark Lord, the hater of all this muggles. Mr. Tom Marvolo Riddle.

Hermione shook her head as she pushed herself off the door and made her way to the Headmaster's office.

Oh how she longed to be in the comforting presence of her boys again. To be wrapped in Ron's arms, to feel the touch of his lips moving against hers. To see Harry's dazzling green eyes from behind his too big round glass and to ruffle his unruly raven colored hair. Just one more time…

She didn't get to hear their laughs enough, see their eyes light up with true happiness enough. To just be with them enough. It all just wasn't enough and it just seem to end so soon…too soon.

And the lonliness was surely going to kill her, it already felt like she was dead. She always felt like such a blessed child, to be one of the lucky few to know the wonders of magic and to have been best friends with such incredible and brave people. She never thought anything in her life was unfortunate until now. If you would have told just last year that she was going to become parentless, friendless and trapped in a time that she did not belong to, she would have cursed you, punched, slapped and hexed you and then walked away back to the people who loved and cared about her. Probably Harry and Ron would have gotten into it as well.

Yet, here she was. Completely and utterly alone. Well, no… she did have Dumbledore. But it was just so exceedingly weird. She was never close with her headmaster. It was always Harry that Dumbledore was focused on, that he would talk to. I mean sure he knew her and even cared for her but it was nothing compared to _their _relationship.

And yet Dumbledore felt he knew her well enough to know she could handle a task as enormous as this. To be "the last hope of the Wizarding world."

Misery tightened Hermione's chest. What if she couldn't do it. What if she never figured out what Dumbledore really sent her in the past to do and she was stuck here forever? Without Harry? Without Ron? What if she failed them all?

She just simply _could not fail_. She wouldn't do that to Harry and Ron. She loved them too much and would be damned if, because of her, all their suffering and pain had all been in vain. She would bring them justice and make them proud. She had too, too much depened on her.

"Password?" a deep, wise voice asked from above her making Hermione jump a mile in the air until she realized that her feet had led her subconsciously to the Headmaster's office.

Thinking back, Hermione tried to remember if the Headmaster had even given her the password to his office. She could not recall that he did. Groaning Hermione gazed up at the Gargolyes that patiently stared down at her awaiting her response.

"Er. I don't think the Headmaster told me the password. You wouldn't, perhaps, give me a break and just let me in would you?" Hermione asked hopefully to which the gargoyle shook its massive golden head. Hermione sighed.

"Well…how about you call him down and tell him that a Hermione Granger is here to see him. I'm pretty sure he's expecting me anyway." Hermione requested but the Gargoyle just shook its head again.

"The headmaster is in a meeting at the moment. If you want us to call upon him then you will have to wait." The gargoyles deep, rich voice bounced around her with power. Obediantly, Hermione turned and plumped herself against the corridor's floor, minding how her borrowed uniform Epona loaned her, covered her so that she was showing anything inappropriate even if the corridor was empty.

Hermione actually began to doze there on the corridor floor until finally the gargoyle spoke again.

"The meeting is over." He stated before he began to twist until a staircase appeared and the face of Armando Dippit appeared, along with two other high official looking men Hermione didn't recognize as they came down the stairs.

Hermione scrambled up from her spot on the floor and watched with curiosity as the men continued to walk towards her, not noticing, as they were still talking, her presence until they were practically right in front of Hermioene.

"Oh Ms. Granger! Just who we were talking about!" Armando said as he again turned to the two men on either side of him as he beckond Hermione closer, "This is the girl I was just explaining about, Ms. Hermione Granger." he introduced and Hermione smiled faintly as the two men eyed her with curiosity that she was starting to get used to.

"Hello." Hermione politely responded and she their offered hands.

"This is the Minister of Magic, Mr. Bernard Cattingale and his assistance Mr. Cornilus Fudge!" The Headmaster explained as Hermione's wide eyes gazed at the two men before her and nearly had to bite her toungue from exclaiming her disgust at the name Cornilus Fudge.

"A pleasure I assure you. Armando was just telling us of your strange appearance into this school Ms. Granger. It is quite…an interesting story." The Minister, Bernard Cattingale said conversationally as he scrutinized her up and down. Hermione couldn't help but frown.

"I guess it would be Minister, but for me, its mostly painful." Hermione responded not unkindly.

"And are we just to believe this very tell tale story you've put out for us Ms…Granger right?" Hermione's eyes immediately snapped to a much younger Cornilus Fudge and had to stop herself from giving a too biting comment.

"Well, belive what you will sir, but I have only spoken the truth and I'm not going to waste my time trying to convince narrow minded people otherwise." Hermione said nearly crossing her arms and scowling at the man.

"Ho ho. Well. If you don't mind Ms. Granger to wait in my office as I escort the minister and his assistant out…" The Headmaster dismissed. Recognizing the slight edge in his voice, Hermione nodded and politely smiled at the two men.

"Gentlemen." Hermione said with a nod of her head to which they returned, Fudge's reluctance rather evident due to his frown that she couldn't help but grimace at when they were out of sight.

Agitated, Hermione made her way up the stairs and into the headmasters office all the while cursing Fudge under her breath.

Hermione couldn't help but gasp as she came into the Headmaster's room so different than the one she had seen just a few days ago. Gone were the strange little trinkets and intriguing knick knacks that used to crowd the walls, only to be replaced with gleamly medals all with Armando Dippits name on them. The were so sparkly clean that Hermione knew he must have spent the time to clean them himself. The room definitely lacked the certain knowledgable flare that Dumbledore placed in the room in the future. There were only a handful of books stuffed in the corner from what Hermione could see and the trinkets that Armando did have were no where as interesting as Dumbledore's. The only thing that remained familiar in the room were the bored faces of past Headmasters and mistresses.

With a grimace, Hermione sat down at the offered seats in front of the Headmasters desk to a wait his arrival, her eyes shifting from one portrait to the next only to land on the empty spot where Dumbledore's portrait will come to appear in the future. Her mind once again started to drift as she stared at that vacant spot directly behind the Headmasters chair only for her to snap back to reality when Armando Dippit entered the room.

"Ah Ms. Granger. Finally we can get down to business. Now I know you're unfamiliar with that goings of Hogwarts but its traditional for every first year, or in your case, new student to get sorted into a house. There is Ravenclaw for the exceptionally bright students, Hufflepuff for the feircly loyal, Gryffindor for the most courageous and Slytherin for the overly ambitious. I, myself was in Ravenclaw," He said with evident pride and an air of superiority, "a most pleasant house in my opinion. They've won the house cup five years in a row now… see the houses all compete in getting points in hopes of winning the house cup at the end of the year. You can get points for your house in many ways…Qudditch and such." He said absentmindedly as he reached up and grabbed the haggard and old sorting house from the shelf. "So, lets see which house you will be in Ms. Granger." He said with a kind smile.

Hermione's heart started pounding in her chest as he came to her with the hat. The memory of when she had put on the hat at only eleven years old, flouted into her mind. She was nervous then, not really knowing what to expect but now, now she felt almost delirious with anticipation, nervousness, dread. What would the sorting hat have to say to her this time. So much has happened to her since she was eleven and she knew she was a totally different person than the naïve, rule follower little girl she used to be.

She just wondered how big of a transformation she underwent.

She closed her eyes tight as the Headmaster placed the tarnished hat upon her head, her nervousness so overwhelming that she actually felt her hands trembling. Taking a deep breath, Hermione forced herself to calm down and relaxed, the worst thing that could happen was that she would be sorted into Slytherin and that wasn't happening.

__

Ah…Long time no see Ms. Hermione Granger. I see you've come very far since the last time I spoke to you… Hermione almost gasped. You remember me! Hermione thought into her mind and felt the hat chuckle.

__

Of course I remember Ms. Granger, for its all here in your mind_…You have changed greatly since we last met. Very greatly, but mostly for the better. _ Hermione's heart started beating a little faster at those words. _You have lost a lot of your childhood ignorance, yet you have most of your ideals intact. You're still a very cunning young lady and absurdly loyal._

You would make Helga Hufflepuff proud but unfortunately for her, you will be joinging her house. Hm…your knowledge has vastly grown to rival even the smartest in Ravenclaw yet even still, that is not the right house for you…

That leaves Gryffindor and Slytherin. You have always been a very ambitious child. Even when you were eleven, I toyed with the idea of putting you in Slytherin…You need to be the best in everything. Failure is unknown to you and definitely qualifies you enough as a Slytherin. Plus you have an uncaning ability to lie through your teeth when the situation calls for it. Your bravery has faultered somewhat without the presence of your two best friends but you still harnest that strength and courage that has helped you so far in your situation here. And you will need that courage Ms. Granger, now more than ever. Yet where should I put you.

You will face many trials in Slytherin given your background but it may also help you…Hermione felt herself starting to lose her cool. This hat surely couldn't actually be thinking of putting her into Slytherin!

__

Putting you into Gryffindor would be too safe, Ms. Granger. This is no longer a matter of mundane house rivalries. You have a mission Ms. Granger…Gryffindor has help you enough over the years. Perhaps…


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Judgment

__

Perhaps it is time for a new home amongst the snakes and not the lions…

Hermione froze, and could fell her face drain of what little color she had as her palms got sweaty and her heart started pounding furiously in her chest.

Oh Merlin no…

_Oh yes Ms. Granger. I think for the rest of your stay here, you will be in SLYTHERIN!_ The hat cried out around the room causing a bemused Headmaster Dippit to come towards her. Hermione felt close to crying again.

_Do not worry Ms. Granger. All will work out in the end._

'Yeah, my death set in stone!' she cried into her mind feeling faint before the Headmaster took it off. He gave her a surprised smile.

"Well then Ms. Granger. We will announce your new home with the Slytherins during dinner later this evening. If you would like, I could get your schedule set up for your classes…" he suggested but the words barely registered in Hermione's frantic mind. She could only manage to shake her head slowly, still in complete shock and denial as to what house she was now in.

Yet, there was not much she could do. She couldn't beg the Headmaster to resort her cause then he'd wonder why she didn't like Slytherin and she couldn't let on that she knew anything about this place or suspicions would arise.

No, she needed to be calm and take it in stride. No matter how shaky her stride was. The sorting hat was smart, it would not put her into a house that she was _deliberately _begging _not _to go into if it wasn't for the best.

Surely, there was a reason that it put her to live, literally, in the den with snakes that would just love to rip and claw her apart. _Surely_, there was a reason she was in the same house as the future Dark Lord that would ruin the lives of thousands. Surely, no one would try to kill her in her sleep…

'_Oh Merlin_!" Hermione thought feeling as if she was about to hyperventalate. '_Just breathe Hermione, breathe. You can do this. Dumbledore wouldn't have put you thro_ugh _this if you couldn't handle it Hermione! Just Breathe_!' She told herself as she struggle to regain a steady breath. She didn't even care if Dippit was giving her odd looks. It was better than having a nervous break down for no apparent reason.

"Ms. Granger. Would you like me to fix up your classes?" he asked this time a little more sharply. Hermione gazed at him trying to squash her maddening panic and when she felt she had successfully composed herself, she opened her mouth to speek.

"Actually sir, I was hoping to talk to you about some things." she said, surprised at how calm she managed to get her voice. In the past she most sounded like a hysterical banshee when she felt as she did now.

"Yes?" he asked clearly surprised. Hermione cleared her throat and again took a deep breath.

"Okay. I was hoping sir, if we could keep my percentage and name out of this strange occurance in case…well, should anyone find out I'm still alive. I know it might seem paranoid but I'd feel a lot safer knowing that my identidy could not be traced back here." _Or in the future_… Hermione thought, heart thudding wildly in her chest.

Armando, his face changing from surprised to concern, just shook his head.

"I'm sorry Ms. Granger but a majority of the teachers here and the minister himself already know what your name is and situation. I'm afraid-"

"Well I'm sure that they could be owled and told that this needs to be kept under raps. Or I could simply change my name to something like, like Jean Granger-Sanders a pureblood witch from France. I just- I can't be Hermione Granger, _muggleborn _witch from France." I said pleadingly. He just gave me a skeptical look but shrugged.

"As you wish… Ms. Granger-Sanders. I guess I could send on owl to the ministry and alert the staff…" he trailed of when Hermione gave him a relieved smile.

"Thank you so much Headmaster!" she said and he smiled slightly at her.

"Right then, so getting back to your classes?" he asked and Hermione nodded enthusiastically, still feeling very grateful that he had actually listened to her.

"Well, since I wasn't able to get an owl to fly out to France, I have no idea where you are at in your education. I suggest you take the standard classes you need such as Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, charms and such. If you wish to take any other extracurricular classes than that would be no problem either, it's up to you." Dippit told her.

"Well I already know what classes I would like to take headmaster; your courses aren't really any different than the ones in Beauxbaton's." Hermione said, knowing this to be a fact from all her reading.

"Well what did you have in mind?" Dippit asked. Hermione took a breathe, mentaly preparing herself from what she was about to do.

"In Beauxbaton's I was in Ancient Runes, Potions, Defence Against the Dark, Charms, Athrimancy and Transfiguration. Oh, and Herbology." Hermione responded. Dippit's eyesbrows rose until they reached his hair.

"Those are a lot of classes Ms. Gr-Sanders," he said, Hermione nodded almost feeling like she was going to cry. _It wont be nearly as hard since they aren't _advance _classes_. "Well if you're comfortable with it that we can set up your schedule right away, but if you get overwhelmed, feel free to alert the Head of your house Professor Slughorn." Dippit said and again Hermione nodded.

"I know I can handle it sir." Hermione responded with conviction.

"Just so long as you're comfortable. Now, would you like a tour of the grounds Ms. G-Sanders?" he asked and Hermione nodded, feeling very relieved.

Now, she wouldn't have to worry so much about he identity in the future, though keeping Granger within it wasn't a good thing, it would have to do. Besides she could answer to the name Jean Sanders easily since it was her mother's maiden name.

Though, she didn't like having to be in no advance classes but she knew that she had to at least _try _to blend in. Of course they're would be some spotlight on her being the first transfer student at such an old age, but after that cooled down she hoped she could just fade into the backround. Just the strange new girl and that's it. So that meant being normal smarts. No more 'brightest witch of her age' for her this year. The thought made her heart ache.

She let her mind wander as she followed the Headmaster down the staircases and through the corridors, listening half heartedly to his idle talk about the schools history and such with minimal interest. She knew everything anyway, and then some.

He stopped frequently to point out random things like paintings, tapestries and statues to explain their signifigance. They had just come to a strange cloaked hunched statue when students started coming out of their classrooms and miling around.

"And this figure here was Selestrial Donola. She was a teacher of Hogwarts in the early 1600's and helped protect the castle against the Hungarian vampire Countess **Elizabeth Báthory** who is known in the muggle world as the 'bloody countess' of-" he explained pointing at the statue but Hermione wasn't paying attention, she was watching the other students as they went about.

Again she was getting that surreal weird feeling that she felt ever since seeing Gale Nott in the hospital wing. The faces passing were all so new and unrecognizable. It was sad the unfamiliarity.

And then they came, recognizable, distinguished, rich and powerful, horrible, cruel, malicious…future _death eaters_…

People skirted around them like little mice, only to look back at them with awe and lounging after they passed. And they knew it, they relished in it. Hermione could see that from their smirking faces and upraised chins and swaggering, smug footsteps.

Yaxley, Lestrange, Malfoy, Avery, Dolohov, Rookwood. They were all there smiling like the stuck up bastards that they are at all the others around them. And then Tom Riddle, right in the middle of them all with Cassandra Black, the only girl in the group, clinging to his arm with a smug look on her face.

Hermione knew she would be lying if said it wasn't an impressive sight. They were all so, confident, tall, good looking, or at least a couple of them were. They screamed superiority.

And Hermione hated it.

She wanted to march right up to all them just punch them with her own damn fist like she did to Malfoy in third year. She wanted to scream at them that they were all just going to be _pathetic_,_ decrepit _little _minions_! She wanted to scream out to everyone who was looking at them as if they were living and breathing _gods_, just what they really are. Show them her memories of these wretched people and let them feel her pain, anger and anguish because of them…because of _him_! Their untouchable precious leader Lord Voldermort! Or really _Tom Riddle_.

As if hearing her angry thoughts, his eyes snapped to hers, cold and dark despite the slight curve on the coner of his lips. They pierced through her. Staring into her own like razor knives, un-relentless and fierce. She didn't like it, she didn't like them looking at her one bit, but yet…she didn't look away. His eyes held hers captive completely.

They continued to stare at each other until the last possible second, Hermione with a racing heart as his gaze grew darker and darker every second she held them. She wondered for a moment if he was trying to read her mind but she didn't feel any intrution. So she stayed staring at him until he was gone along with his other lackeys.

The second he was out of sight, Hermione let out a great gust of air, not even realizing until then they she hadn't been breathing.

__

What in the name of Merlin's knickers was that? She wondered still staring off where he had disappeared. A cold shiver went down her spine. _Did I just have a stare down with Tom Riddle, the future Dark Lord?_ She sighed as she realized that that little encounter just completely blew her chance of being un-noticed.

It took her a full minute to realize that she could no longer hear Armando Dippit talking anymore. She glanced up looking around for him and was surprised to see that he was all the way down the hall, so she quickly scurried over next to him before he could realize that she wasn't next to him.

Yet her mind stayed jumbled and mixed up for the rest of the day, thinking about Riddle's dark eyed gaze; the awe and respect that practically everyone in the castle gave him, the large group of followers he acquired already and how he already seemed so far gone in his evilness that there was really no way to bring him out.

She couldn't help but be amazed at the others ignorance of his obvious darkness that seemed so clear on his face. It was as if they were all under a spell. How could they not see the cold, dark evilness his eyes permanently seemed to have? How could they not see past his faux humble demeanor? How could they not tell just how disturbed and dangerous he is?

It irked Hermione to no end yet she had to ask herself. If she hadn't known what she already knew from being from the furture, would she be just like all the others here, in admiration for him? Would she two be put under his spell? She would like to think that she wouldn't be, yet she wasn't so sure.

But she had given people the benefit of the doubt before. She did it with Malfoy in sixth year, and that ended with Dumbledore being killed. Would she have made that mistake with Riddle if she had actually been born in this era?

She shook her head, clearing her head of her trival thoughts. What did it matter if she did or didn't anyway? She was here now and she knew perfectly well what Riddle is capable of. Now the question is, what she is supposed to do about it?

_Or more importantly…do I kill him?_ she asked herself simply since she knew there was no jumping the gun about it. She had to kill him. It was the only way to save them, the people she loves, the life that she could live.

She could make it look like an accident. Perhaps slip some poison into his drink during meal times, or get close enough to stab him in the heart and seal the wound so that it looks like a heart rupture. Maybe then she would be able to go home, except this time there would be no Voldemort, no pain… no suffering. She smiled sadly. _Wishful thinking will get me nowhere,_ she thought.

Luckily for her, she didn't encounter Riddle, nor any of his other fiendish friends for the rest of the tour. She was slightly surprised that her time with the Headmaster's tour went smoothly. For a small while Hermione was even able to get her mind off of everything as he showed her places like the Library, the Greenhouse, the girls lavatory. For a while she felt like she was home again.

But that feeling quickly dissipated as the time for dinner came steadily closer and she remembered again just what kind of position she was in. She was going into the snake pit soon. It left her feeling nauseous.

She really had no idea what to expect. She was never able to go with Ron and Harry down to the dungeons in their second year and she sure as hell wasn't snide, snarky and rude enough to even pass for a snake. She was a lion through and through. She had no idea what the sorting hat was thinking putting her in a house the complete opposite of the house she used to be in for six years. She wanted to cry.

Making enemies with Cassandra Black also did not help her situation at all. She was obviously Queen snake. She probably held reign over all the Slytherin girls in her year and down, not to mention above since she was Riddle's girlfriend, or so Hermione assumed.

Hermione was taken out of her thoughts when the Headmaster Dippit turned fully to her.

"Well Ms. Granger, ahem, I mean Granger-Sanders, this concludes the tour of Hogwarts. I've taken you to all the necessary places in the castle but if you need any help or have any questions the teachers and prefects would all love to help you. I'll leave you now to your own devices. And remember, dinner is at eight o' clock, try not to be late. I'll see you then." he said smiling at her.

"Oh, okay sir." Hermione responded, trying to hide her surprise at how fast it went. He gave her an unsure look.

"Are you sure you'll be alright by yourself?" he asked and Hermione nodded waving his question off.

"Don't worry Headmaster, I'll be fine, if I have any problems I'll just ask another student or teacher." she said placatingly. He nodded his head.

"Good. Well be sure to be at dinner so we can introduce you." he said and then he was hurrying off.

Hermione watched him go for a second, a terribe hopeless feeling in her chest, clogging her throat, before turning around and climbing back off the stairs desperately wanting the comfort of the library. She encountered no one on her way.

Immediately when Hermione opened the great oak doors to the library, she felt better again. It was the same feeling she got when Armando had taken her there the first time earlier. It was the first real familiar place that held no sadness or change. It gave her comfort. She decided in that moment that this would be where she would spend most of her time for the rest of this year and probably the year afterwards.

Idly, Hermione wandered the shelves, occasionly stopping and running a finger down a book she read in the future. Some conjuring a small smile at the memories they might hold and others bringing a stinging pang to her heart.

Slowly she started accumulating some books until her arms were full. She scuttled over to a nearby table and carefully set her selection down before plopping herself into a seat.

She picked up the closest book to her first, her fingers tracing over the cover, **_Strange Voyages of Time_**. She quickly flipped it open and read the short introduction.

_This book, like many other's that have been published, analyzes and assess strange paranormal phenomenon's throughout wizarding history that is too strange, even for us. This is a book filled with guesses, estimations, speculating and uncertainty, yet it helps introducing these strange occurrences to witches and wizards everywhere and opens our eyes to the idea that something else entirely, is changing our world._

Hermione sighed feeling slightly disappointed and set the book aside. She picked up the book next to it, hoping that it would be a little more on topic with what she was looking for. She needed to know about time traveling, for after skimming some titles on the shelves, Hermione came to realize that she had a very _big _problem.

She had no idea how to get back home. All Dumbledore's instructions gave her was how to _get _to the past, never once did it mention how to get back after she was done with whatever taske he designed for her.

Was she supposed to use the portal that she came from again? Or did that only take you into the past like a time turner? Would she immediately be transported through time after her task was fulfilled? Did she have to make her own time machine to get back? Did she have to get this era's Dumbledore to make the portal for her?

So many questions! So much uncertainty! If Riddle didn't kill her when this was all over, than her unanswered questions will. She just couldn't take not knowing.

That was why she decided to do some research and find out as much as she could about time traveling. It could help her with a lot of her questions for she surely couldn't be the first person to ever go back in time. That could be achieved with a time turner, she knew that. Perhaps some unfortunate soul had gone back too far in time like she went back far. She just needed some hope, something to help her.

She couldn't stay trapped here in this wretched era for the rest of her life! She needed to go back home. _Or I'll go insane!_ Hermione thought.

So she read, skimming around the books on time looking for something recognizable to her situation. Anything…

She found nothing in her second book except interesting facts and opinions about the space time continuum. She was about to open her third book when she realized that the sky outside hade darkened considerably and that her stomach felt hollow and was growling at her.

Hermione froze, dropping her book with a loud clang on the table. She rose on trembling feet and numbly walked towards the doors, her eyes searching for the clock. She closed her eyes slowly when she saw what time it was.

It was time for dinner.

She couldn't stop the groan that escaped her lips. She didn't want to go up in front of all those people, have their curious oblivious eyes on her as she's sorted into…into…she blanched, unable to even _think _about where she was sorted in.

__

Slytherin, Hermione. You were sorted into Slytherin.

She felt nauseous, the hunger disappating with her anxiety. How was she going to _survive_?! They would eat her alive while hissing like the vicious snakes they are. They'd break her even more than she already was, tear her apart into little pieces. Puncture her heart and soul with their little poisonous fangs until she was a massacred mess at their polished and shined shoes.

_Calm down Hermione,_ a voice that sounded a lot like Ron said in her mind, _You might be with the snakes but remember, you've hunted with the lions. _The thought almost made her feel better until she remembered that her lions weren't with her any more. She was alone.

Yet she couldn't throw herself a pity party, she would have to face it. Face fighting without Harry and Ron. Face the pureblood menaces of Slytherin. Face Tom Riddle. It was inevitable.

So squaring her shoulders and squashing the urge to just stay in the library until this whole mess was all over, Hermione made the first step towards the library doors…and then quickly turned around, breathing heavily. She stayed like that, hands braced on the table and eyes closed for a good minute before deciding that she would go as soon as she put all the books back on the shelves that she collected.

_Dippit is going to kill me._ Hermione thought when she exited the library fifteen minutes later, yet she couldn't seem to make her feet go any faster as she walked. She was stalling, she knew, but she couldn't help it. She didn't want to be there. Not one bit.

Her heart froze when she finally came upon the Great Hall doors only to spring back to life at an abnormally fast rate. She could hear inside the loud chatter of students who should be long since been out of school, could hear the sound of their forks and knives scrapping against the plate, could hear them laughing with unbidden mirth.

Her breathing increased rapidly and a lump formed in her throat as she stared at the doors in horror. This was it. If she opened these doors she would not be able to back down. She would have to see it through. She'd have to endure their stares, let herself be sorted into Slytherin, subject herself to their narrowed eyed glares of hate and suspicion…be in the presence of the worst human being alive. She shivered, closed her eyes.

"I can't do this," she whispered, bracing her head against the doors with sadness. "I can't go in there."

"Well you really don't have a choice now do you?" a voice pipped up from behind her. Hermione jumped about a mile in the air. She swilved on her feet, her face filled with pure shock as she gazed at someone who looked eerily like Luna Lovegood except with brown hair.

"Excuse me?" Hermione breathed out, her heart still jumping wildly in her chest.

"Sorry, did I frighten you? I didn't mean to it's just that- I saw you staring at the door and then I heard what you said and I just decided to point out that well…you don't really have a choice." the girl responded with a smile.

"Um, okay." Hermione said with puzzlement. The girls smile just grew bigger.

"I know you're scared, I would be two if I were in you shoes but you're going to have to face them sooner or later and not everyone in there is _bad_." she said. Hermione shook her head, this was too weird for her liking.

"Do you… do you know who I am?" Hermione asked unsurely. The girl nodded her head.

"Of course I do. Everyone does. It's not very common for Hogwarts to get new students and well you're definitely not a face that anyone would recognize and around here everyone knows who everybody is." she said brightly.

"Right. Well that's comforting." Hermione mumbled before sighing.

"Don't worry so much, you'll be fine. Just open the door." she said and it sounded so simple but when Hermione turned back and reached out for the handle, she just couldn't do it.

"I can't." she said honestly. She just couldn't handle this, she knew she seemed stupid and whinny yet she couldn't find it in her to care. No one would understand just why it's so just for her to be feeling such immense fear.

"That's okay. Sometimes it's easier if you have someone to help you." she responded kindly, walking over to Hermione until she was right next to her. Hermione bit her lip with anxiety.

"No, honestly. I'm just-I'm just going to go back to the library. I have a bad feeling about this." Hermione said, stepping away from her and the door. The girl frowned.

"I heard what happen to you. If it makes you feel better, this can't be worse than what you've already faced." she said. Hermione gazed into her face blankly for a second. The girl had no idea.

"What have you heard?" Hermione asked, she needed to know what the gossip was going around about her so that she knew what to deny and what to play up on.

"A couple of things. The most common thing flouting around is that you were found almost dead just outside the forbidden forest and that you were left there to die as a warning to Dumbledore from Grindiwald that he'd start killing younger if he kept foiling his plans. Or something like that." Hermione shook her head. They were way more creative in the future. "They also say that Tom Riddle found you and saved your life."

Hermione's head snapped up, gazing at the girls thoughtful face with barely contained anger. So her little fall through time helped Riddle look even more glorified than he already was. She cursed him in her mind and would have cursed him outwardly if it wasn't for the fact that she had to remain oblivious to him. She took a deep breath in her nerves to calm her anger.

"Is that so?" she said when she realized the girl was waiting for her to respond. She nodded her head.

"So, do you want to go in now?" she asked, her hands on the doorknobs. Hermione's mind quickly flew into a panic again.

"No, n-" she started reaching out to stop the girl but it was too late, she had already swung open the two doors wide so that they banged loudly against the wall, getting the attention of most in the hall.

Immediately, Hermione felt herself freeze, a deer caught in the headlights kind of expression on her face. The girl turned her head back to look at her over the shoulder, a smile on her face as she gestured with her hands for Hermione to step forward. It didn't registure. It was only until the whispers started breaking out that her mind finally snapped out of it's shock and she sent a long, cold glare at the girl's direction before she walked in.

She could feel the eyes of everyone in the hall like daggers on her skin, she refused however to let it effect her like how it would in the past. She needed to get used to the stares and whispers that were going on all around her since they'd probably be following her everywhere she went for the next few weeks. Besides, if Harry could deal with it then so could she.

So she kept her gaze forward and locked on the teachers table. She even forgot that the girl was next to her until she leaned in closer to her.

"See, not so bad. I'm Patty, by the way. If you need me, I'm at that table there with the Hufflepuffs okay?" she whispered before giving her a smile and walking off. It was at the moment that Patty had moved that she finally really saw the faces around her.

She wished they would stop staring at her with those gazes, those wide eyed, curious gazes. It made her want to run away, it made her really miss her friends, hate the secrets that she know kept inside.

She moved with her eyes fixed on all of them, wishing that every face that passed would be the ones that she was already familiar with. Wishing that they were one of her friends, ones that already knew her. But they weren't and it made her feel so incredibly sad cause, she didn't even know if she would ever see those faces again.

Her brown eyes swept across them all and noticed immediately when her eyes started landing on Slytherins. The changes in from their stares to the others was magnificent. They had curious eyes also but the conjured it differently with leering smirks but assessing eyes. Some eyes were narrowed, some unblinking but they all held something: suspicion, malice, distrust so she knew immediately when she was looking into Riddles.

They were unmoving…cold and uncaring. Instead of the eyes that were looking at her to judge, for curiosity for anything, Riddle was looking at her simply just to watch. There was nothing in his eyes, and yet everything that mattered. It was his gaze that she hated most, his dead dark eyes that made her dread so much being here.

She glared at him angrily for a moment, unable to help herself and forced her eyes to keep moving hoping that he'd feel inadequate with her diliberate disposal of him.

"Ms. Granger you are late!" Dippit said not unkindly, Hermione smiled guiltly.

"I'm sorry sir, I lost track of time and then lost on my way here." Hermione lied, hoping he would let the subject go. He did.

"Well since dinner is almost over…" he said and Hermione looked up at him with hopeful brown eyes, thinking he might postpone her doom, "you're just going to have to finish with dinner at the staff table and then we'll sort you out. Do you still want me to announce you by Jean Granger-Sanders?" he asked at Hermione nodded, trying to hide her disappointement.

"Alright, why don't you sit down over at that empty seat over there alright and when dinners over I'll call you up." Dippit dismissed, turning around back to the students.

"Alright, alright. Hush down everyone and go back to your meals!" Hermione heard him say from behind her as she walked to the teachers table toward the empty seat.

"Um, Hello." Hermione said to the witch who sat next to her on the left.

"Hello young one! I'm Professor Merrythought, the defense against the dark arts teacher. How do you do?" she said happily, Hermione smiled at her.

"Oh just fi-" she responded before she was cut off when a long arm stretched out to her, reaching rudely across Professor Merrythought.

"Proffesor Blubbersby the Herbology teacher." a short, stumpy man introduced, and Hermione kindly shook his hand, mostly because Professor Merrythought looked like she was going to faint having his arm reaching over her so close to her chest.

"H-Jean Granger-Sanders sir." Hermione responded, letting go of his arm. His nose sort of twitched as he stared at her before abruptly turning and going back to his food.

"Don't mind Proffesor Blubbersby, Ms. Granger-Sanders," she said before leaning in a little closer to Hermione with a shy sort of coy look on her face. "He's a little strange you know?" she said before falling into girlish giggles. Hermione smiled at her as she ordered her food, though in her mind she was wondering if they were all on drugs.

"So I heard you were going to be in sixth year for a while, are you excited?" Professor Merrythough inquired just as Hermione's plate popped up. She winced internally.

"Oh, yes. I've missed school a lot." Hermione answered happy she could answer that half truthfully.

"Yes, sixth year is a very thrilling year, though you're probably looking more forward to seventh year." Hermione just nodded, wishing that the woman would just leave her alone so she could sulk in misery at having to be here at all.

"I think, no I know, that you will just love Hogwarts, Ms. Granger-Sanders. This school is truly something purely…magical. Not that Beauxbatons isn't a splendid school in it's own right but there's just something about Hogwarts…" she said wistfully, trailing of with a smile that Hermione, for once, didn't actually have to force herself to return.

"I take no offense." Hermione assured her before going back to twilering her food around her plate.

In what felt like no time at all, the dinner plates disappeared and desert matiralized in front of them. Again Hermione felt her heart jump to her throat and her stomach tie into horrible little knots that fluttered so damn annoyingly in her stomach. She wished on all the things holy that she could just sink down into the floor and never come out, or wake up from this incredibly aweful nightmare she was in. And in even less time, Dippit was standing up and heading to the podium in the front to address the students.

Hermione gazed torturously up at the enchanted nighttime ceiling.

"Please help me have the strength." she whispered, not knowing who she was wishing to. Maybe God, Goddess, Harry, Ron, her parents, anyone.

"Ms. Sanders," Dippit called to her and Hermione let her gaze fall hopelessly onto him, trying to control her nervous heartbeat and shaking hands. She rose stiffly from the wooden chair and onto shaky feet and took a deep breath before heading to him. She felt like she was walking into the gaunlet.

"Ms. Sanders will be joining the sixth years Slytherins for the remainder of the year. I ask you to please give her a warm welcome here into Hogwarts. " Dippit said when she had finally walked over. A polite applause went around the hall and Hermione forced herself to smile. She felt Dippit put a hand on her shoulder.

"Now, I bid yee all a good night, and if someone could show Ms. Sanders to the Slytherin common room that would be lovely." Dippit said as Hermione gazed at all there pursed gazes.

"Your house table is right there with the green flag with a snake on it, you see it? You'll sit there from now on." he said a little loudly over the comostion of the other students leaving the Great Hall. Hermione nodded again, trying not to look so frightened as her eyes trailed over to the leaving Slytherins. She was thoroughly surprised when she saw Tom Riddle walking over to them, his cronies in the back all looking over at him with blank faces as they watched him leave, except for Cassandra who was practically fuming with anger.

"Ah Tom! You always pull through don't you my boy?" Dippit said to him almost proudly, Riddle just smile cooly back at him.

"Just trying to be helpful to our new student Headmaster." he responded, his eyes flickering over at her. She had to resist a shiver. Something about the way he said that…it made Hermione feel, if possible, even more nervous.

"Of course you are Tom! Anyway, Ms. Sanders, this is Tom Riddle a sixth year prefect, head of his class and even the classes below and above him and heading undoubtedly to becoming Head Boy next year!" Dippit said enthusiastically, looking at Riddle as if he was a shiny new trophy he just earned.

"That's…wonderful." Hermione forced out along with a slight upward curve of her lips. Riddle didn't respond other than a slight incline of his head. It irked her that he got such an extravagant introduction and he yet he was completely blasé about it, as if it was the norm for him.

"Yes, if there's anything you need, Mr. Riddle here will be able to help you out without fail so feel free to ask. Now, I'll leave you to get to bed, you're going to need your sleep for your first day tomorrow, Ms. Sanders. Goodnight Tom." he said clasping him on the back before taking off.

There was a moment of tense silence where Hermione just stood there, cursing her terrble luck at being stuck with _Tom Riddle _of all people to bring her down the the _dungeons_. She had to will herself not to go taking off towards the Gryffindor common room anyway and completely desregarding what the sorting hat told her.

"Follow me." Tom Riddle spoke from in front of her. Hermione felt her breathe hitch and quickly snapped her eyes to his. He just gazed down at her cooling again with that stare as if he was watching her just to watch her, or actually not even really watching her, it was almost like he was looking _through _her.

She had to resist the biting retort that was on the tip of her tongue (to hell I'd follow you, you damn homicidal psychopath!) and simply gave him a curt nod. He gazed at her a second longer, holding her eyes captive before he turned away and Hermione realized in that moment just how tense she was when he was facing her.

_Okay Hermione, keep your cool. He's not the Dark Lord yet. You just need to keep your emotions in check and not let him get the best of you. You _can _do this._ She told herself, trying to take a descret deep breathe threw her nose. She immediately caught the intoxicating smell that seemed to be coming from Riddle. _Wow he smells _really _good!_ Hermione thought before mentally slapping herself. He was a damn snake, everything was posinous, even his scent! So for the rest of the way she kept herself way out of smelling distance from him.

Abruptly Riddle turned towards her and if she hadn't been walking so far back away from him she would have undoubtedly ran into him. Maybe that had been his plan.

"This is the Slytherin common room entrance. The password is _Lacrymosa. _Any questions?" he addressed her in his deep rich voice that oozed manipulation.

Hermione blinked since she had been staring at him the whole time and forced her eyes away from his face to look at the wall that was slowly sliding away.

"None." she replied, keeping her eyes on the moving wall, though his burned into hers like acid but she didn't dare to return his gaze; not when she was in his domain.

She tensed immediately when she saw in her peripheral vision that he had taken a step closer to her. She almost turned her head to look at him but she refused to give into that urge. But the air grew thick around her with that first step, a step that made her heart start pounding in an alarming rate, that made her breath catch.

She could smell him again, that rich manly scent that seemed to beckon her closer but she fought that urge; though she couldn't resist taking in a deep breath to capture that smell. It was delicious. She wondered faintly if it was some sort of a cologne cause surely no one could naturally smell _that _good.

It drew you in, made you want to get closer and closer and closer. But no! Hermione couldn't, wouldn't get closer to the manipulating snake. She would not succumb.

Luckily, that absurdly tense moment passed as he took another step towards the opening in the wall and breezed past her form with ease.

"Then follow me." he said as he went in, not turning to look at her. Hermione glared at his back wondering why ever time he spoke his voice always had a way of making things sound like orders, a way of making her feel below him. And they only exchanged a couple of words…

Silently she followed his back into the eerily green, cold common room. A shiver went up her spine as she swept in, she did not like the energy in her. Everything was too formal, the couches stiff, the walls a slimy green, and fancy decrotative artifacts on mantle pieces, tables, night stands that offered no comfort, that had no point other than to look expensive. It was dreadful. _Gryffindor tower was a lot more homely and better_. She thought distantly.

Though the decour of the room hardly made an imprint on her mind since the moment that she stepped in, every cold, calculating, Slytherin eye snapped to her and if she hadn't been so paranoid and apprehensive about this moment all day long, the attention would have made her drop to her knees in fright.

She didn't stop however, she followed Riddle carefully behind him, trying so hard to seem unaffected but it was almost virtually impossible since she was so completely affected by _everything_. It didn't help her at all that the person she was using almost like a shield was the same man that in years to come all around England would fear. It unsurprisingly made it way worse.

She almost wished she could see his face. Was he giving an order to the others around him with his eyes, expressions, dark mark? Where they all the sudden going to turn their wands on her and hex her into next week? Was she just following blindly into a disastrous situation?

Her feet felt so sluggishly slow, as if heavy bricks were hanging deadly around her ankles. Although she knew that they would be as fast as light to turn around and get the hell out of there if need be. She was actually waiting for that.

Again, Riddle abruptly turned around to face her, drawing the attention, thankfully, away from her and onto him as he stood in the center of the room. He stared with dead, blank eyes at her that almost seemed so…inhuman, yet mysterious and handsome, wonderous and deep.

She couldn't help but suck in a breath when those eyes landed on her, hardly believing her treacherous thoughts, her deceived mind. In that moment she knew immediately that should she have been born in this time, she would have actually fallen for his good-golden boy act. It made her feel so ashamed. Ashamed enough to make her turn her head away from him just so that she couldn't see those eyes that made her into such a tratior.

"Welcome to the Slytherin common room." he spoke barely above a calm whisper with a still strong voice.

Such a simple sentence but he made it sound like a vow, a kind of breed of human, one that was way more supreme to the others_. Like you should be prideful to be elected into the house of liars and selfish pricks. _She thought in disgust.

It was only a second later that Hermione realized everyone was waiting for her to reply, gazing at her with expecting venomous eyes.

She glanced up at Tom Riddle, her eyes, in turn, boring into his, matching his stare with one of her owns that she picked up in her rightful time, preparing herself mentally and physically for whatever was about to come with her nonchalant response.

"Thank you." she said as detached as she could manage. It sounded sort of pitiful in her opinion but it seemed to do the work since it drew the attention away from her and back to Riddle.

He just continued to stare at her, penetrate her… really _see _her. It was with slight shock that she realized she was being judged, evaluated to see where she would stand in their ranks. And she realized that her judger was Riddle, that _he _determined her life in the Slytherins dungeons, that he held in his hands her social stadus and the treatment she would get. She was at his mercy. It was him who would either let her swim or sink.

It made her feel sick. It made her want to go running as far away as she could go. To think that Riddle had so much power over her in this moment, this moment of judgement that seemed to never want to end.

For it all came down to _his _word, they all looked towards _his _say. He was their leader, their king. It one flicker of his head, one incline in his neck, one shake of his hand, twitch of a finger, frown on his lips, her life could be put through the hell she feared so much. The torment that would befall her was all in his hands…

She waited, meeting his eyes, gathering her strength. If he wanted to condem her in the dungeons to cruelty she wouldn't take it without a fight. She wouldn't let them ruin her without her doing something. She was a Gryffindor, a lion, a third in the Golden trio, or at least she was and in her heart would always be.

His eyebrow rose and a look came to his eyes that Hermione just didn't know what to make of, amusement, anger, incredibility? She felt her heart stop. Was this it? Would they attack her now.

She saw movement to her left and turned her head slightly to see better, if someone was going to attack her she would be prepared. Her hand flickered slightly to her pocket with her wand tucked safely inside. But it was only Cassandra, her face a mask of fustration, annoyance, and disbelief. It put Hermione on super alert. _What does that mean?_ she thought, feeling unsure with that behavior, then suddenly she felt the change, the air around her became less cold, less tense…breathable.

"Welcome to Slytherin." others started to say around her and Hermione tried to mask her shock, tried to stay cool as if she had no doubt that she wouldn't have been excepted but it was hard, she was a person her wore her heart on her sleeve.

She felt as if it was all a joke. Were they trying to lead her into a false sense of security before they turned their wand against her?

Yet she could tell it wasn't. She had missed something vital. Riddle had obviously excepted her, giving some sign of this without her even knowing, but why. Couldn't he tell the hate that boiled and bubbled beneath her skin? Didn't he see her intention clearly on her face as she thought it was? _Obviously not, maybe you're better at covering your feelings up better than you had thought…Slytherin._

She wanted to shiver in disgust. Wanted to deny the claim that she know had. But she couldn't

She was a Slytherin now.

And Tom Riddle was now her king.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

_She was a Slytherin now._

_And Tom Riddle was now her 'king'._

Hermione sighed as she stared up at her green canopy draped around her bed. She knew she was in some state of shock or denial but just couldn't seem to pull herself out of it. _This all feels so wrong._

It was cold, bitingly so, in the dungeons. Even under the covers she could feel the cold seeping into her skin. And there was not a sound; it was completely silent, too silent. She couldn't hear the sounds of the other…students that she left in the common room or the sound of life that come about at night.

She found herself falling. Falling away from everything that was and yet wasn't around her. She wasn't in this bed, wasn't staring at these green curtains, wasn't freezing cold. No, she was warm, safe and comfortable staring up at red curtains embroidered with gold and Crookshanks purring contently next to her while the others, Lavender, Parvarti, Eve and Dawn all frolicked around their room gossiping in excited chatter. She could hear the soft patter of the rain hitting her window pane or the whistling of the wind through the tree leaves. She could climb down the familiar winding stairs to the common room and find the friendly faces of her two best friends waiting for her, perhaps playing a game of chess or talking by the fire.

Sighing, Hermione let herself be pulled into the memory of her friends. She let Harry's beautiful green eyes fill into her mind, remembering how precious it was when he would turn to her with them filled with uncertainty, but hope. Let Ron's crooked smile and clear blue sky eyes burn in her brain till it lit her on fire until she was there with them back in their overwhelming presence.

Abruptly, Hermione was pulled from her fantasy when she heard the entrance to the dormitories open and people started into the room talking loudly and stiffened in her bed.

"Can you believe that?" she heard one girl say over the sound of three separate footsteps moving around the room. Hermione slowly sat up, unsure of whether or not to push open her curtains and look at who was now with her in the dorms or just stay put.

"Hardly. I mean, the girl doesn't even look right. I mean, did you see her hair, come on! Beauxbaton girls are like known for how perfect there hair are." she heard a nasally sounding voice respond. Hermione cringed not only because of the sound of the girls voice but because she knew now that they were talking about her.

"I know! And her hair is definitely not. I mean it's worse than a rats nest for crying out loud." She heard a different sounding girl trill from somewhere further from her bed and Hermione inwardly was bristling. They all shared a laugh before silence all the sounded came over them.

Hermione feeling confused at their abrupt cut of laughter and decided to peek her head out a little to see why.

Her eyes landed on him immediately after pulling back her bed hangings. He was only a few feet away from her, his tall frame standing comfortably in the door entrance in a way that reminded her strangely of Sirius Black.

"How did h-" Hermione heard someone whisper behind her before another girl shushed her.

"Ladies." his cool voice drawled out. She could practically see the others shiver at the sound of it and cringed at the nervous giggling the other girls made.

"T-Tom." They stuttered in barely contained awe. Hermione could even see their slightly fluttered faces and wide goo-goo eyes. It made her sick just to even picture it but it made her even more sick that he liked it so much. His eyes were practically smirking as they suddenly landed on her as if he knew all along that she was going to be in that exact spot. She quickly made to hide her disgusted expression for what reason she did not know.

His eyes, dark and penetrating, stayed staring into hers for what felt like eternity but in reality could only have been a few seconds and in a strange way Hermione felt as if he wasn't even looking at her even though he clearly was but for some reason it was as if he was staring into her. It was as if in those few short seconds he had found out about her whole life and Hermione couldn't help but frown at the thought feeling naked and bare.

A smile slowly formed on his lips, charming and sinister at the same time.

"Jean." he said her name, rolled it around with his tongue, contaminating it until it felt like something dirty. She wanted to erase the name from his lips bring it back to purity or hide away from any relation to it altogether.

"Tom." she forced out and, realizing that she was just staring at him through a little slit in her curtains like a scared little girl, she got out of her bed and stood. She could see now that Tom was most certainly not alone as she had thought.

Next to him Cassandra stood, her arm wrapped tightly in his at his side as if afraid that if she didn't keep such a tight hold he would just disappear from her. Her eyes were cold and superior when they landed on Hermione but instead of that intimidating her, it only made Hermione straighten her spin and lift her chin in response.

"I assume that everything is to your liking so far." he said, his voice cool and detached though Hermione sensed a hint of amusement. It was a pointless comment meant for only a pointless answer.

"Of coarse. The frost bite induced atmosphere and drawling snide remarks are just so pleasant." Hermione replied sarcastically to even her own surprise and certainly the other girls who gasped as if she had just cursed him. Tom on the other hand just smirked, his dark eyes staring her down intently and eyebrow raised and the way he was looking at her, the way his eyes were burning into her left Hermione slighted winded but she didn't back down.

"I could fix that for you if you wanted." he invited and for a second Hermione imagined that he wasn't talking about what she was anymore with the way his deep voice almost seemed to lower in a dangerously inviting way. She would be lying if she said that it didn't send a bolt of excitement through her body at just the mere thought but it was because of that Hermione was able to pull herself out of his words effect.

"I think I'll find a way on my own to fix my problems." she countered back hoping with all hope that her face wasn't as flushed as she felt it was and wishing so bad that her heart would stop pounding so badly.

His smirk definitely widened and an un-mistakable glint came to his dark eyes as if he spotted something extremely valuable.

"Well its my duty to help, being head boy of coarse, so you if you have any problem you come to me." he said his ensnaring deep voice. Hermione nodded not really able to respond.

So focused on Riddle was she that she completely missed the look of jealousy on Cassandra's face, not to mention her entourage. In fact, it was only until she spoke did Hermione even remember there were other people present with her and Riddle.

"Tom," she spoke, her voice so much more alluring and sultry than Hermione could ever manage. She would be lying that it didn't make her jealous but she got her satisfaction on just the look on Cassandra's face alone; a mask of sickeningly fake sweetness that made Hermione prideful she was considered such strong competition in the other girls eyes. Tom paid her no attention until she sidled up next to him and draped her arm over his wide shoulder and clutched his arm with her other hand in a grip Hermione could even see was vice-like.

"Yes Cassandra." he said, finally looking down at her face. Cassandra smiled brightly, her blue eyes alight at having his attention sorely focused on her. Hermione couldn't help the slight flash of pity she had for this girl who so obviously struggled for the affection and attention of the cold heartless and cruel man in front of her. She almost wanted to tell her just how truly evil he was but she figured in her adoration that Cassandra wouldn't even care, just like his followers. The thought brought back Hermione's sense of realism and ire of the situation she was put in.

"I just wanted to thank you for such a lovely night. I'll see you again tomorrow wont I?" she asked and there was no hiding the slightly desperate undertone of her voice.

Tom smiled down at her almost like a parent would to a silly child, it was patronizing but sinfully handsome look all the same. Cassandra swooned and a quick glance around the room proved to show to Hermione that the other girls were in a similar state of admiration for the head boy, there eyes locked covertly on his face. When her eyes returned to Riddle it was with surprise that she fond him watching her from under his lashes, a dark and dangerous look that left her flustered and ashamed at it's affect but she didn't take her eyes off him.

Satisfied that he had her attention it seemed, Riddle turned his intense gaze back onto Cassandra and gently took her hand from his arm and placed it on his chest near his heart holding it there in a romantic gesture to bring her closer. It was almost sweet if Hermione didn't know that it was all just a play of manipulation.

"Yes you will Cassandra. I'll be looking forward to it." he said smiling charmingly, his eyes focused on her like she was the only important person in the world, even the way he spoke was enchanting and truly a gift. Then he swooped down and placed a lingering kiss onto Cassandra's rosy cheeks and Hermione watched as her eyes fluttered and Tom lingered there a little longer than necessary, just long enough for a tempting kiss that he would not give.

"Goodnight." he said, his deep voice barely higher than a whisper and Cassandra bit her lip fighting what, Hermione couldn't image; the urge to just fall at his feet, the urge to sigh, to sing, to cry with joy at his affections?

It made Hermione sick especially at the sly smirk on his face that he flashed at her before he turned and left the room.

A/N: Hey all who have read this far! I'm sorry it has taken me so long to update this but I've had a revelation. I simply cannot write as long of chapters as I normally do because i wind up never really ending them and therefore it takes much longer. So, i'm keeping my chapters shorty that way I'll update quicker! Reviews are appreciated and most welcome!


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